Have you ever clicked the confirm button on an online site only to have it tell you that you’d get a better deal if you waited a couple days to book? Of course not! Since one of the reasons people use an online site is instant gratification, an online booking site is never going to let you know that the hotel you’ve just selected is running a promo that starts next week, and that you would really be better off to wait a couple more days before you book. And here’s the rub-if you book online and a better rate comes out after you’ve booked, the online site won’t adjust your price. Here at Bliss Honeymoons, if a better rate becomes available after you’ve booked, we can obtain the new rate for you.

At that resort, “ocean view” really means “tree view”

There’s nothing better than waking up in a tropical destination and sitting on your balcony staring at the ocean while having your coffee. But not all ocean view rooms are created equal. In fact, at some resorts, ocean views are obstructed by trees or other buildings. If you’re going to pay extra for an ocean view, don’t you want to be able to see the ocean? At Bliss Honeymoons, we visit the resorts that we sell, so we can give you the inside scoop on what the rooms are really like.

This resort is great if you want to spend the week with rednecks!

While doing a hotel tour of Jamaica last fall, one of our agents spent a couple of nights at what claimed to be an upscale resort. While this resort looks fantastic online, what you don’t see on the online site are the 50 screaming kids doing cannon balls, and the lovely couple in cut-offs who were smoking in the pool! It’s also impossible to taste or feel a hotel from a website, and there was no mention of the rock hard beds or endless supply of box wine swill on their site.

Remember, anyone can build a pretty website. It’s impossible to judge the vibe of the resort, or the crowd it attracts from their site. And there’s nothing worse than spending a week trapped at a resort with people who make you uncomfortable.

Your hotel is closed for the season. Enjoy the Super 8!

In the last year there have been two big cases of couples who booked, only to learn that the hotel was closed for the season when they arrived. (One was a Greek Island honeymoon, the other a 25th wedding anniversary in Costa Rica) In both of these cases, the online site refused to assist them until they could confirm that the hotel was actually closed. But how can you confirm a hotel is closed when there’s no one there to confirm it? Exactly!

In both of these instances, the travelers were left to fend for themselves. Each had to find and pay for a new hotel, and then spend months fighting with the online site to get their money back when they returned home.

You could have gotten that candlelight dinner on the beach free by booking the next room category!

There’s nothing worse than learning the beach wedding you just paid $1500.00 for could have been free if you had just spent an extra $800.00 on the next highest room category, and stayed 7 nights instead of 6 nights.

Online sites do a great job of giving you a list of things that are available at various resorts, and making you think you’ve gotten a deal. But an experienced travel professional knows the inter-workings of the resorts promos, and can help you get more value from your trip than you can find from an online site.

The cheapest flight is not always a flight that can actually work. Online sites are notorious for selling flights with misconnects, or failing to notify clients that their flight schedules have changed. Last year we had a destination wedding guest who insisted on booking their own flights. Imagine their surprise when they arrived at the airport with their two toddlers in tow, only to learn that Mexicana had gone bankrupt several weeks ago and was no longer flying. The walk-up fare to get to the wedding on an alternate airline was almost $2000 per person. They wound up driving home, missing the wedding, and losing everything they paid for the trip as they declined the insurance. And of course the online site they purchased the air through never notified them that Mexicana had gone under, and denied them any kind of compensation.